On June 6th, 2011, CHIN presented on the importance of digital preservation for future access and protection of investments.

Very important to remember:

• Digital content has to be reusable, repurposed and available in the future
• Digital preservation process has to start at the onset of content creation... unlike physical objects that can be placed in a box and dealt with later
• Important to protect the investments from project funding to create digital heritage content
• What can we afford to lose? how much do we spend on digital preservation

Many small museums in Canada are creating lots of digital assets.  The challenge for CHIN is addressing these museums with limited resources to preserve their digital content.

Solution for small museums with limited resources: Do not reinvent the wheel. Tools and templates are available to develop digital preservation strategies (see OMA Technology Resources)

Major issues with digital preservation are very similar to physical collections, including:

• Backup copies (reference, backup, preservation)
• Storage / Equipment
• Environment
• Ownership
• Security (lock rooms, cabinets, folders)

DIGITAL CONTENT BACKUPS

How many backup copies should you make? Remember LOCKSS: "Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe"

• Preservation backup (best form for long term - useable data)
• Minimum of two preservation copies: away from each other (i.e. one on site + one offsite)
• "backup" backup (often compressed folder that requires software to open - e.g. WinZip / WinRar)

Note: Always review/test backups once they are complete

How often should you monitor your backed up data? Every few months, access the data to see if it is still readable

STORAGE / EQUIPMENT

Many physical and digital storage solutions exist for digital content, including:

- Trusted Digital Repositories - ( severalUniversities are using these server-based systems and may be willing to support community partners)

- Physical Carriers (always consider life expentancy (format often supported for 2 years... max 6 years)

Options include:

• Magnetic vs. Tapes
• Magnetic Disk: data accessible much more easily, but needs to be reviewed/replaced every several years.
• Tape Disk: slower and more difficult to retrieve data
• Optical Discs (CDs, DVDs: beginning to lose their role in digital preservation)

Note: purchase more than one example of equipment to ensure there is sustained support in case a disk becomes inoperable.

OWNERSHIP / INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Remember to always secure the permission to copy and/or convert digital media (depending on type of object, intent of creator - i.e. digital artists, works of art)

Major question: How do we preserve digital-born works of art and who owns them?